Friday, 29 March 2013

[wanabidii] Tough Times For Nyerere - Episode B

----- Forwarded Message -----
From: annar cassam <acassam@hotmail.com>
To: chambi chachage <chambi78@yahoo.com>
Sent: Friday, March 29, 2013 11:36 AM
Subject: 1964-65:Tough times for Mwalimu (Contd)

Episode B.

1.The second crisis in TZ-US relations came about in the wake of the ZZ Revolution
in Jan 1964. Ten days after the revolution, the following marxist/leftist countries formally
recognised the Karume regime; Soviet Union, China, Cuba, Czechoslovakia, N.Vietnam, N.Korea,
E.Germany,Yugoslavia,Albania and Bulgaria.  In the global divide traced by the Cold War at the
time, East Africa, including ZZ, was in the Western sphere of influence. Naturally, the arrival of 
the entire marxist cohort, some of them bearing heavy gifts, on the Spice Island was as much
a cause for joy for the cohort as it was of serious apprehension for the capitalist camp. The 
Western governments did not act to intervene but waited and watched and then, after some weeks,
gave formal recognition to  the People's Republic of ZZ.  The US decided to appoint a separate mission
in ZZ to be headed by a Consul-General (Frank Carlucci) under the overall authority of US Ambassador
Leonhart in Dar. In April of that year, it was announced that Tanganyika and ZZ would unite to form the United
Republic of Tanzania.

2. "Who the hell is Carlucci?" asked President John Kennedy during his first meeting with Prime Minister
Cyrille Adoula of the Congo during the latter's official visit to Washington in 1962.  Adoula (successor
to Lumumba after the latter's assassination in  1961) had begun his conversation with the American
President with the question "Ou est Carlucci? (where is Carlucci) and the President was curious to know!* 
This is from the Wikipedia entry on Carlucci where it is explained that Carlucci, the CIA man in Leopoldvillle,
 had been implicated in the assassination of Lumumba in 1961 under instruction from his own government.

3. On Jan 15 1965, one month after the end of the US forged-documents-from-the-Congo-affair,  TZ 
announced the expulsion of two US diplomats for subversion; namely the US Consul-General
in ZZ, Carlucci, and the deputy Chief of Mission in the Dar embassy, Robert Gordon. The TZ and ZZ intelligence
people had picked  up their conversation by public phone where they had  used suspicious language indicating
possible action hostile to the TZ leadership on the island and the mainland. The Americans explained that
they had in fact been discussing Carlucci's request that a special message of congratulations be sent to 
President Karume from the Oval Office on the first anniversary of the Revolution and that they had been
using American jargon such as "bigger guns" (meaning senior officials) and "enough ammunition" (meaning
convincing arguments to back their request) and that this jargon had been mis-interpreted by the local 
intelligence agents.

3.Karume remained adamant on the expulsion; Mwalimu explained that he believed that the subversion being 
planned by the two was  a private conspiracy between them which in no way involved the US Ambassador in Dar
 or the US government. He consequently asked for the removal of the two without this leading to a
 break in TZ-US relations.  This was not possible. The two left for home and the US State Dept. expelled the TZ
counsellor in Washington and recalled  Leonhart for consultations. Whereupon TZ goverment did the same 
with its Amb in the US and a very difficult period of strained relations began.

4. In retrospect, it is worth reading the Wikipedia page on Carlucci (where there is no mention of his passage
in ZZ. ) but where his brilliant career path after the Congo is clear to see. As a republican, he was close to all 
the prominent honchos of the last decades eg: Rumsfeld, Nixon, Reagan, Cheney, Weinberger,Poindexter etc.
He was appointed US ambassador to Portugal immediately after the officer's coup against the Caetano facist
regime in Lisbon in April 1974 where he made sure the country remained in the western fold inspite of the
close relations between the officers and their marxist comrades in Frelimo and MPLA. He then went on to 
become Deputy Director, CIA; Deputy Sec. for Defence; National Security Adviser and finally Secretary of
Defence under Reagan.

 ________________________________________________________________________________________
*Sources: The Critical Phase in Tanzania 1945-1968 Nyerere and the Emergence of a Socialist Strategy by
CRANFORD PRATT  (Cambridge Unniversity Press 1976.)
* Wikipedia page on Carlucci.

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